PRODUCING A NEW COLOR 285 



most popular of flowers, was given to the 

 world. 



It appears then, that the Shirley poppy is a 

 variety that has been specially selected within 

 comparatively recent years with an eye to the one 

 problem of color modification. It therefore 

 represents a strain of plants in which there is a 

 curious mingling of hereditary factors for color. 

 It is a fixed variety, at once recognizable, yet the 

 different flowers that resemble each other to the 

 point of approximate identity as to form and 

 botanical features may be scarlet or pink or 

 white or variegated, and all these colors may be 

 represented in the plants grown from a single 

 lot of seed, and sometimes in a single individual 

 flower. 



Even as to the matter of the black center 

 which characterizes the original corn poppy, the 

 Shirley shows a tendency to reversion. Now and 

 again flowers appear that have black spots at 

 the base of the petals. These, however, are 

 rigidly excluded by the florists in selecting 

 seed. 



Other marks of tendency to variation in the 

 Shirley are the uncertain length of the stem, 

 which may be very short or very long, and a 

 propensity to doubling of the petals, which is 

 regarded as a defect. Moreover, there is some- 



